I noticed an interesting phenomenon the other day: I only want to be told what I already know to be true. More specifically, I only want to hear the things I already think. It’s been a long time since I read a book that I didn’t know for sure I would like (a theology book anyway…I’m a little more forgiving of pop fiction) or ordered something from a menu that I hadn’t had (and liked) before. It’s a long-understood truism that the politically interested tend to watch and listen to the “news” programs that affirm their pre-existing beliefs. What I…
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Another Week Ends: Techno-Fasting, Google Glass, Tiger Babies, Missional Burnouts, Serrano’s Backfire, Powell’s Joy, and Family Tree
1. First off, a timely rejoinder to our many social-media-is-making-us-lonely posts from Paul Miller on The Verge, entitled “I’m Still Here: Back Online After A Year Without Internet”. As the title suggests, Miller unplugged for a solid year, partly as an assignment to try to discover how technology, and the Internet in particular, had affected him (and us) over time. He reports that while the experience was initially incredibly freeing, he eventually found himself right back where he started, i.e. his new habits became just as constraining as the old ones. In theological terms, you might say that Paul’s story…
We All Love Grace…Now Shape Up!
I’ve written about my travails in community softball before, and here’s another dispatch from the front lines.
This year, I’ve been playing on church-league softball team (not my church…I’m a scab, a ringer, brought in for my ability to ensure that they have enough people to field a team), which is a different experience than the “town” league I played in last year. This league has prayers before and after the games and its players keep our anger and competitiveness jailed beneath our surfaces. So, you know, Christian.
The other day, as we all gathered at home plate…
This Team is Terrible…And Awesome
The Carroll Academy Lady Jags have lost 213 straight high school basketball games. They’ve won six games in fourteen years. Let that sink in for a second. Now watch this touching piece on their story:
As you can see, Carroll Academy is no ordinary school, and this is no ordinary basketball team. It’s almost as if the coaches have been reading Mockingbird! There are, to be sure, a few of the usual ESPN tug-the-heartstrings triumph-in-the-face-of-adversity moments, but some of the things that the coaches say are wonderfully profound.
This is nothing compared to what you’re gonna face in your life. 20, 25,…
The Key Ingredient
It’s not a stretch to say that NBA players are deemed a bit self-absorbed. ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd has a lot to say on this subject. Cowherd notes the differences between selfish players and unselfish players, and the highlights various effects they have on their team(s). Cowherd suggests that it’s actually the unselfish players that are the key ingredient for long-lasting chemistry in locker rooms in sports, whereas the selfish types foster a hostile aura that inevitably results in teams running out of gas and giving up.
Cowherd uses LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony to illustrate his point. Suggesting that LeBron is…
The Flying Dutchman, Schadenfreude, and Tim Tebow
The scientist who yields anything to theology, however slight, is yielding to ignorance and false pretenses, and as certainly as if he granted that a horse-hair put into a bottle of water will turn into a snake.
–H. L. Mencken
Saturday was my birthday, and I was showered with a heap of my favorite kind of gift: Stories about triumphant people whose lives have been ruined. I’d like to say that it is theological conviction that makes me read these stories end to end, but it is probably some sort of dopamine-stimulating Schadenfreude. Either way, it is an embarrassment of riches.
First, the…
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2013 NYC Conference Recordings: Good News That Never Gets Old
Another heartfelt thank-you to everyone who helped put on this year’s Mockingbird Conference in NYC, especially our friends at Calvary St. George’s Church. It’s a good thing most of the presentations below have to do with grace, as the very thought of trying to top it is incredibly scary…! Speaking of freebies, though, we are once again making the recordings available at no charge; we only ask that those who were not able to attend this year *consider* making a donation to help cover the cost of the event. Download links are followed by an in-line player for each recording.…
The Tombstone of All Great Work: Achievement’s Cost and the Imagination of Misfits
This is–who knew?–Rodney Mullen’s TED talk at University of Southern California, on innovation and imagination, and its connection with belovedness and freedom. As you’ll remember, we recently covered Rodney’s ethereal wisdom in DZ’s Bones Brigade review–a Netflix streamer we couldn’t recommend more highly. Here Mullen talks, among other things, about the Nobel Prize as “the tombstone of all great work” and, conversely, about losing’s connection to creativity, and creativity’s inseparable tie to individuality and belonging (ht PB).
P.S. For more skateboarding-related wisdom, this time of a spiritual variety, Christian Hosoi is no poseur, either.
Who Runs Toward an Injury?
During Louisville’s Elite Eight win over Duke, on their way to a National Championship, Kevin Ware experienced what is probably the most gruesome injury ever broadcast on live television. If you were watching, you’ll know what I’m talking about, and if you weren’t…there’s really no way to describe it. It will suffice to say that broken bone was visible through skin, and men young and old were immediately moved to tears at the sight. Everyone, coaches, players, and referees, instinctively moved away from Ware, horrified by his injury. Only one person, Ware’s Louisville teammate Luke Hancock, went the other way.…
Grace From the Very Top
1993 is, I’m sure, notable for many things. But for some, it was most notable as the year of the second straight “Fab Five” appearance in the NCAA National Championship game. The year before, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson, and Chris Webber had become famous for being an all-freshman starting five at the University of Michigan, introducing what has been referred to as “a hip-hop element” into the game, and getting all the way to the championship game before losing to Duke. The next year, as sophomores, the Fab Five was even better. Again, they went all…
A Rare Moment of Absolute Celebration in Augusta
If you didn’t already know, an 8th grader played in the biggest golf tournament of the year. Guan Tianlang is supposedly just like any normal 14-year-old. By any measure, though, being the youngest player to qualify for the tournament in Masters history makes this kid special. Tianlang was even able to play a few practice rounds with his hero, Tiger Woods, a surreal experience for the youngster to be sure. Other than getting penalized for “slow play” on Friday, Tianlang did pretty darn well: his worst hole was a bogey. Not bad for an 8th grader, huh?
I find the sports…
Reflections on Identity and Bracketology
Congratulations to Louisville, winners of the NCAA tournament, and the team I picked to win in my tournament bracket! Unlike Louisville though, I only came in third in my pool for picking who would advance throughout the annual collegiate basketball tournament. Third out of six participants. Some bracket I picked, huh?
Maybe it’s just me, but this year in particular, it felt like the trend of “bracketizing” things left the sports world and entered pop culture big time. Are you a fan of public radio programming? A Southern Cali public radio station put all your favorite programs on a bracket. Needless…
Thank You For Not Coaching
People are selfish. Christians are people. That’s an interpretation of something Aaron Zimmerman said at last year’s Mockingbird Conference (Have you registered for this year’s yet?). He said that people are bad, and that’s true…selfishness is just one of the myriad ways in which we’re bad. That’s why it’s noteworthy when someone does something legitimately unselfish; when someone does something for someone else with no regard for themselves, they usually end up on magazine covers and talk shows. Such behavior runs counter to our nature, and so it stands out.
Professionals in the athletic arena are people…
John Zahl: Congrats to everyone involved! What a huge accomplishment! I know Eth...
Charles: "full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction" ...
Paul Walker: Amazing post! Thank you....
David Morton: Thanks! Ummm... yeah... that was probably the most dead-on, jam p...
Mark Salomon: How am I only discovering this... today? Best to you and your future e...